The Endocrine Society has issued a Statement of Principles on endocrine-disrupting chemicals and public health protection. It recommends that EPA and other agencies adopt these principles in their screening for and regulation of endocrine disrupting chemicals. These principles include the following.

• Basic scientists actively engaged in the development of new knowledge in relevant disciplines should be involved in evaluating the weight-of-evidence of EDC studies, as well as in the design and interpretation of studies that inform the regulation of EDCs.

• State-of-the-art molecular and cellular techniques, and highly sensitive model systems, need to be built into current testing, in consultation with the appropriate system experts.

• Testing needs to include models of developmental exposure during critical life periods when organisms may be most vulnerable to even very low-dose exposures.

• The design and interpretation of tests must incorporate the biological principle that EDCs act through multiple mechanisms in physiological systems.

• Endocrine principles, such as those outlined in this document, should be incorporated into programs by EPAand other agencies charged with evaluating chemicals for endocrine-disrupting potential.

• Environmental chemicals that interfere with any aspect of hormone action should be presumed to produce adverse effects.

• EDC exposures during development can have effects on hormone action that cannot be corrected, leaving permanent adverse impacts on cognitive function and other health parameters.

• People are exposed to multiple EDCs at the same time, and these mixtures can have a greater effect on the hormone system than any single EDC alone.

• The weight-of-evidence guidance developed by the EPA must be strengthened by adhering to principles of endocrinology outlined here, including low-dose effects and nonlinear or nonmonotonic dose-response curves.

Click below to read press release on Endocrine Society Statement of Principles

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